No Two Can Bear the World
by mattjdupree
Summary: "Or is it?" Drago Bludvist, HTTYD2. Toothless doesn't become a Titan. The two heroes freeze to death, buried by the ice of Drago's Bewilderbeast. When the best of us fall, what can a mother do, to reclaim all she has lost?
1. Oneshot : No Two Can Bear the World

Title: No Two Can Bear the World

Description: "Or is it?" ~Drago Bludvist, HTTYD2. Toothless doesn't become a Titan. The two heroes freeze to death, buried by the ice of Drago's Bewilderbeast. When the best of us fall, what can a mother do, to reclaim all she has lost?

-NTCBtW-

 _During Two New Alphas, just after Toothless successfully rescues Hiccup from the muddy Bewilderbeast's tail..._

"Hold him there, Toothless!"

Toothless growled at the madman, glaring at him with an intensity that clearly said, "Move and I will maim you to protect my human."

Valka drifted in closer, leaning forward from excitement and disrupting the baby Scuttleclaw's delicate balance. She stared at Hiccup, grinning in awe of her offspring as he put away the wings that allowed him to glide.

"It's all over now," Hiccup said.

Unexpectedly, Drago grinned. "Or is it?" Hiccup barely had time to turn around and recognize the threat. Seeing it a bit earlier, Valka pulled away in shock, the tiny Scuttleclaw forced to move with her momentum.

"Oh no! Ag-" Toothless dove at Hiccup. There was a brief moment as the Night Fury hung over him, before the wall of supercooled water smashed both of them into the ground and encased them in ice.

"Hiccup!" Valka shouted. She dove to the ground, many seconds too late.

Drago chuckled, his grin widening.

Before her Scuttleclaw even touched the ground, Valka slipped off and started running toward the ice. "No!" She slammed a fist into the ice, sinking to her knees. "No..." She lay against the ice, heaving. It wasn't fair. Stoick and Hiccup? Why…?

The shadowed area next to the ice slowly dimmed as Hiccup's flaming sword went out.

"Why…?" She closed her eyes, tears stinging her rapidly cooling face.

Gobber's voice broke her reverie. "Val! Watch-"

Valka's eyes snapped open. She saw a glint of light reflecting off the ice and threw herself sideways. Drago's bull hook clanged loudly as it left a small crack in the frozen water, glancing away. The madman growled, drawing back the hook for another strike. Valka scrambled up and away, stumbling to her feet.

Her eyes locked with Drago's. His showed not a hint of remorse for his actions.

"You have done enough to us! Stop!" Valka pleaded.

The hook drove down. Val shifted aside, letting the hook drive harmlessly into her coat. Drago laughed aloud, until she grabbed on to the hook with both hands.

"You have done _enough_!" Valka repeated, a terrifying amount of determination bleeding into her voice.

Drago sneered at her. "And what are you going to do, dragon thief? The dragons are no longer y-"

Valka wrenched herself upward by the shaft of the hook, pulling Drago down. He held on to the hook, refusing to lose his grip even in the surprise attack. The madman's head thunked into the ice. He lost his grip on the hook.

The dragon thief took a few steps away, holding the hook ready to attack him. He shook his head, trying to recover from the blow the ice had given. The madman chuckled. "Attacking me in single combat? Fool. The dragons submit to me. You have no chance."

She pointed the hook over the ice, toward another looming shadow. Drago's Bewilderbeast flinched imperceptibly, seeing the weapon in the hands of one of its master's enemies.

"What are you doing?"

"Dragons, all of you!" Valka shouted, "Drago Bludvist is not your master! He is only a human! You do not have to-"

Drago, recognizing the threat to his power, charged at Valka. He roared defiantly, refusing to let her undermine what he had worked his entire life to achieve.

The dragon thief smacked him out of his charge with his own weapon, knocking him to the ground. "No! You do not control them!"

Drago's Bewilderbeast looked between the two of them, confused. He looked at the foe who had struck down its master and taken the tool of command, then back at its master where he crawled along the ground.

"You do not belong to him!" Valka shouted to the Bewilderbeast. She pointed the hook at the dragon, noting as it flinched. Then she pointed the weapon at Drago. "Free yourself from him!"

"Wait!" The shout distracted everybody. Astrid struggled against Gobber's good arm. "You can't kill him! Hiccup would never…"

"Lass, he killed Stoick and Hiccup, an' Toothless!" Gobber reasoned.

"I say kill him!" Snotlout agreed with Gobber. Many other Vikings behind them also shared their more macabre intentions.

"I'm always down for more destruction," Tuffnut said.

"I mean, we are as long as there's food for us afterward…" Ruffnut qualified.

"Yeah, I like to be able to have a place to sleep, too. Killing this guy shouldn't, like, cause any problems with that."

Fishlegs tapped his fingers together, nervously. "But, whenever it was possible, Hiccup preferred-"

"FIGHT!" Drago screamed at the Bewilderbeast as he regained his footing and charged Valka. "FIGHT!"

The Bewilderbeast reared back, preparing to obey.

"No!" Valka ordered, cowing it with the bull hook.

Drago took her off guard as she stalled the Bewilderbeast, tackling the smaller warrior to the ground. Before he could get an attack off, she jabbed the hook's base into the side of his head, disorienting him.

She smacked him with the hook's base again, outright stunning him and giving him a good shove as well. Valka untangled herself, just in time to avoid a diving Terrible Terror. "What?"

Dragons dove toward her and Drago, firing at fleeing Vikings. Rather than risk itself and the possible dangers of the bull hook, Drago's Bewilderbeast was sending the other dragons to fight her and to free Drago.

"Stop!" Valka swung the hook, pointing it at the dragons coming directly toward her. They cowed, backing off and landing around her in a wide circle, but they still appeared ready to kill at the slightest sign of weakness.

Drago chuckled as he struggled back up to one arm. "You have no control, little dragon thief. In the face of true power, you are _nothing._ "

"No." Valka spun to glare at Drago. He was grinning, the new bruises and gashes on his face doing nothing to hide his air of victory. "NO."

The madman opened his mouth to say something more. The point of the bull hook smacked into his face, no restraint given. "AAAGH!"

"You have DONE ENOUGH."

Dragons chasing off Berk's Vikings began circling back. Drago's Bewilderbeast rumbled, in concern, confusion, _terror_ …

Valka swung the hook, again and again, tearing at the madman. "No more!" She punctuated her words with attacks. "You. Will. Not. Hurt. Anyone. Else. Ever. Again. You. Monster. You. Madman. You. Murderer. You… Y-..."

She stabbed the hook down one last time, embedding it in the remains of Drago's head. She looked up to find dragons chirping and rustling all around, all staring past her at the Bewilderbeast. The massive dragon rumbled. Slowly, Valka slumped aside to reveal the gruesome end of its master.

The Bewilderbeast roared, preparing to- "Stop!"

Valka heaved, realizing springing to her feet after her vengeful attack on Drago had almost made her pass out. She looked down her own arm, finding the bull hook in her hand and pointing at the cowed king of dragons. Blood dripped from the ends of both points. The dragons stared at her, glaring at her with slitted eyes.

"Stop," Valka whispered, her breathing evening out. It was over. Drago was dead.

Who had won, though? Certainly not the humans, for they had lost two chiefs in as many days. Not the dragons, because they were still under the control of that muddy, murdering Bewilderbeast.

Gobber began to push his way through the dragon's wings and bodies, trying to get to her. "Valka! Val!"

The disturbed dragons began to growl at him, more and more turning to face the one-armed, one-legged smith.

Indeed, many other Vikings were trying to reach her - or specific dragons - as well. Valka could see the aggression building. The signs of the impending open warfare were unmistakable.

Valka swung the bull hook over her head, then stabbed it into the ground. The action did nothing to abate the growls, though it did get the attention of Drago's Bewilderbeast.

Obligingly, it lowered its tusk to where she could hook on. "Valka! Wha' are you doin'?!" Gobber hollered.

"Watch it, Hookfang!"

"Calm down Meatlug, it's just me!"

"Shh! Stormfly, girl, it's okay!"

The dragon thief saw the tail of the blue Deadly Nadder flick into the air. The tail's spines stuck out at aggressive angles, ignoring her rider's platitudes.

She had to separate humans and dragons. Under the Bewilderbeast's control, they couldn't live in harmony. Valka clambered on to the Bewilderbeast's tusk, then pointed the hook out to sea. "Go!"

"Val!" Gobber shouted before he was drowned out by flapping wings. All the dragons took off, flapping into the air without any of their humans.

Further cries of dismay rose from the Vikings. Through the whirlwind of colored scales, she saw many falling to their knees.

She didn't want to do it, but she couldn't risk another war between dragons and humans.

The Bewilderbeast turned away from the land, plunging into the water, then taking off at a speed unmatched by any boat. As the dragon cut through the water, Valka riding on its head, she gestured to another dragon in the cloud overhead.

Her Cloudjumper descended, clearly not himself. He glided just out of reach, making no effort to help her climb onto his neck.

She knew it may take her years, even decades, to teach this Bewilderbeast to let the dragons live freely like they had in the sanctuary before.

Once she had ascended to Cloudjumper's back - using the hook to pull her way up his crown - she steered Drago's Bewilderbeast northward.

She vowed to succeed, for Hiccup and for her son's Night Fury friend.

If those two couldn't bear the world of dragons and humans, she would return to bearing the world of dragons on her own.

-NTCBtW-

Gobber sat on the ground. Like many of the other villagers, he couldn't comprehend what had just transpired. Even though he had spent several days with Stoick tracking Hiccup, then another day chasing Drago, he still couldn't believe the end result.

The dragons were gone. Even the hatchlings they had ridden from Valka's sanctuary had followed the adult dragons - if only because they were adults. The babies weren't under any control. Still, they had left.

That left the citizens of Berk with exactly zero dragons. None. An island that had spent the last five years coming to rely on the reptiles had just lost its chief, its heir, and its greatest ally.

Needless to say, nobody was sure how to react. Many avoided reacting, simply staring at the horizon where the flapping cloud had vanished from sight.

"I can't believe Hiccup's mother would do something like this…" Astrid held a Nadder spine, one that had come off when Stormfly had taken flight.

"She'll bring them back!" Snotlout said, "Right?!"

"It doesn't matter," Tuff moaned.

"The pranks we're going to miss while they're away!" Ruff complained.

A gentle scratching sound reached Gobber's ears. He turned to find Elder Gothi scribbling in the dirt behind him.

He read the message, then slowly nodded. "I agree, Gothi. We've go' bigger problems than a lack o' pranks."

-NTCBtW-

 _Many decades later…_

"Biography of Fishlegs Ingerman,

"When I was in my youth, just growing into a man, my closest friend was a dragon,

"Yes, I know that in the present day they're creatures of myth; all my old journals are just silly stories for the children. But on my honor - I swear to Thor - back then they were real…"

-NTCBtW-

 **A/N:**

 **Well, sorry to my SwT and EoT fans. This is just an emotional one-shot in the vein of most of my Undertale works - nothing to do with either AU. Sorry!**

 **Thanks for reading this short little piece! I hope y'all had fun!**


	2. Chapter 2 : Under the Ice

Chapter 2 : Under the Ice

-NTCBtW-

Hiccup's head rang like a struck bell, even though it had no space in which to vibrate. On one side, warm scales pressed hard against his head and back. On the other, hard dirt dug into his nose and mouth. On all sides, cold seeped in.

"B- Bud?"

He could feel his best friend shuddering. Toothless' throat spasmed in the tiny space, the dragon's body vibrating with tension.

More cold seeped in, the air becoming thick with the smell of mud as the ice around the two of them melted slightly from their body heat. Hiccup shuddered himself and struggled to move.

Toothless wasn't letting him. The Night Fury lay pinned atop him.

The ice had them both trapped. "Toothless! N- No… You…"

From somewhere over his head, Hiccup heard a whine. It was muffled, probably blocked off by the ice Hiccup felt tickling his scalp, probably under the dragon's chin.

"You've gotta get out of here, bud!" Hiccup said into the dirt, rubbing his nose back and forth and trying to dig out the tiniest amount of space. "There's no air in here!"

He didn't say, "get us out of here." For the moment, he was more worried about Toothless' safety. With a bigger body, he'd need more air…

Toothless hissed and whined, his breathing coming faster from wherever his head was stuck in the ice. "C'mon bud, push! Dig! Something!"

To either side of him, Hiccup felt chunks of ice dig into his sides. Then he felt the scales of Toothless' forelegs reaching past his arms, digging into the ground… scrabbling…

"We're gonna make it Toothless," Hiccup said, not caring whether he believed it. "Just stay with me. We can do this."

Hiccup felt his friend's throat spasming again, then a deep breath. Toothless let out a wheezing whine.

"Bud, come on!" the scrawny Viking pleaded. He wasn't worried about himself - if Toothless didn't make it, he didn't stand a chance anyway. But if he made it and Toothless didn't…!

The great lungs above him heaved, faster and faster. Suddenly, his legs fell still and he gave another whine. Then, with a cascade of rushing ice and mud, the dragon's forelegs wrapped around him.

"No, Toothless!" Hiccup used the space left by Toothless' digging to maneuver his arm around as best he could. As it sank into the upturned dirt and muck, he felt what the dragon had.

A scratched layer of stone lay beneath the dirt, as solid as the island of Berk could be.

"T- Toothless… Please, no…" Hiccup curled his arm around, clutching at Toothless' forepaws crossed over his chest.

A wheeze that sounded vaguely like a coo echoed to Hiccup through the ice.

"Bud, hang o-" Hiccup was cut off by the mud seeping into his face. He turned his head, inadvertently pressing his ear into the dragon's neck. "Hold on! Th- They'll dig us out!" He couldn't accept that this was happening. The Night Fury couldn't die. He couldn't.

He could hear Toothless' every fluttering, short breath. The dragon clutched Hiccup, rubbing the comparatively tiny human's chest.

"Don't do this to me, bud!" Hiccup blew at the mud, trying to get it away from his mouth so he could breathe. He didn't dare open his eyes, through the cold and the muck, so he couldn't see anything. "Please…"

One of Toothless' legs shifted away. For a moment, Hiccup entertained the idea that the dragon had some new plan, that this wasn't the end. The dragon's legs tensed, then Hiccup felt the muck and mud sliding past. He heard a straining wheeze rise through Toothless' throat, then nothing. The dragon stopped moving.

"No."

Hiccup lay still for a moment. It wasn't possible. His reality couldn't contain it.

"B- Bud…"

Now lying on his side with his front to the ice and his right side in the muck, Hiccup freed his left arm from the dragon's right forepaw and managed to reach over his head, seeking out his companion's head. His fingers found ice, and the Night Fury's neck bent at an awkward angle.

The dragon had turned himself on his side, constricting his windpipe, but without shattering the barrier between his pocket of air and Hiccup's. "Bud no!"

His hand roamed over Toothless. He found warm scales and droplets of melted ice, but everywhere they were quickly cooling.

"Don't do this to me. Please, bud, don't do this to me!"

There was no answering wheeze or coo or rumble. The foreleg still wrapped around him slackened, letting him sink into the muck a little. After a moment, its twin slipped off the ice to thump down against Hiccup's side.

He began to hyperventilate, struggling to turn himself over. "Toothless. Toothless, come on bud!"

He succeeded in getting his right elbow to dig into Toothless' right forepaw and turned himself over, covering himself in mud and ice water. Hiccup rubbed at his eyes and opened them, but his vision swam. From tears, from suffocation, or just from dirt, he couldn't tell.

"Don't. No, don't do this to me! Please!"

He slammed a fist into Toothless' side. The Night Fury didn't respond. Panicking, he slammed the fist into the ice over his head.

"Come on, bud! D- Don't go! Come back!"

The ice cracked. Hiccup looked up, blurry eyed, then did it again. It cracked further, cold splinters digging into his knuckles.

"Toothless, come on! We can…" Hiccup stopped to catch his breath. "We can do this! You and me…" He punched the ice again, exhaling stale air. "Together!"

His next punch broke through, grazing the Night Fury's chin. He clutched at his friend's mouth, dragging himself up and the dragon's head a bit closer.

"Breathe, bud! Please…"

His mucky fingers slipped into the dragon's mouth. He didn't find any teeth, just gums rapidly cooling like the rest of his friend.

Hiccup's vision swam and vanished again, this time definitely from tears. "T- Toothless…"

Slumping into the Night Fury's neck, Hiccup hugged him. He sniffed and sobbed and shook, but the dragon lay still.

"I'm sorry, bud. I'm sorry I told you to go away. You didn't mean to hurt him. You…"

Hiccup sniffed. His nose couldn't pick up anything but the sting of mud, the salt of his tears, and the tang of stale air.

"I'm so sorry… I'm… Why did you…"

He clutched harder, shutting his eyes as his head began to swim. His legs felt numb, the feeling reaching the tips of his fingers, too.

"You're my best friend, T… Toothless… my… my best friend…"

Hiccup's throat burned. His eyes stung. Vaguely, his ears picked up on a muffled roar.

"I'll… see you on the… other side... huh?"

He coughed, his grip slackening. Freezing mud pooled under him, waiting to swallow him up the moment he let go of Toothless.

"T…"

Hiccup's breathing came faster.

"T… ooth… l… less…"

He struggled to string together syllables.

"Sorry… you… had to…"

The scrawny Viking couldn't force out the last word, struggling against his diaphragm as he was just to suck down air. He focused on squeezing tighter, hoping his dragon could feel it even in death.

Hiccup's throat constricted. His body wouldn't let him suck down any more of the putridly oxygen depleted air. He spasmed, clutching his dragon friend and his last conscious thoughts fell apart.

Then Hiccup fell still against Toothless' side, for the last time.

-NTCBtW-

Vikings swung maces and hammers at the ice, cracking it apart. Other Vikings without weapons picked up chunks and tossed them aside.

Gobber continued to work as well, even though he held out little hope. They'd been at it for an hour and barely cut the ice to a quarter its total depth. It might be a while yet before they even found-

His hammer broke a bit deeper into the ice than he expected, splintering ice into an open space within. The smith's breath caught in his throat as he pulled back the hammer.

A lifeless head of scales lay in front of him, now covered in tiny chunks of ice. The ice didn't melt against the dragon's scales. Further down in the hole, he could see a head of auburn hair half submerged in mud. An arm wrapped in leather lay over the dragon's neck, limp.

His mouth worked for a few seconds. The Night Fury and the boy were both assuredly dead. There could be no mistaking it.

"I…" He licked his lips, unable to say it. "Found… something."

A gasp came from right behind him as Astrid - who had been taking away his ice chunks - caught a glimpse.

"Found something!" Gobber said again, louder. The sounds of hammers fell still as Vikings abandoned their work to see.

"Oh Gods…"

"It canne be!"

"They're not actually… right?"

Gobber hung his head, somehow resisting the flood of tears that battered at his eyes. "Aye," he said, simply.

The news spread like a wildfire, bringing the village to a standstill once again.

Two invincible souls had perished for them all. Even those two could not bear the world alone.

-NTCBtW-

 **A/N:**

 **I'm a sick, sick person. Also, I have midterms today. Gotta love college! Week two and I already have my first midterm.**

 **So, just in case any of you had a glimmer of hope... ;)**


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